John Whitworth posted:
> It was a winner in a long ago New Statesman
> competition . . . I don't know who wrote it.
> Probably Bill Greenwell will know. It could have
> been him.
> Higgledy-piggledy,
> Dorothy Richardson
> Wrote a long novel in
> Search of her Muse,
> Where, though I wouldn’t sound
> Uncomplimentary,
> Nothing much happens and
> Nobody screws.
Sorry to rain on the parade, but:
This won? If so, shame on The New Statesman. I'm surprised that no one else on the thread--or at The New Statesman--has pointed out that this is a (botched) plagiarism of a higgledy-piggledy by John Hollander, published in the earliest days of the form, in Jiggery Pokery (ed. Hecht and Hollander, Atheneum, 1966):
The Lower Criticism
Higgledy-piggledy
Dorothy Richardson
Wrote a huge book with her
Delicate muse
Where (though I hate to seem
Uncomplimentary)
Nothing much happens and
Nobody screws.
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